Beatrice Wind Farm Puts Renewable Energy On Stream

Talisman Energy (UK) Limited announced that the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project has begun generating energy. The 85-meter high, 5-megawatt (MW) turbine, the largest in offshore deepwater, will be used to generate electricity for the nearby Beatrice platform, 25 kilometers off the east coast of Scotland.

A second turbine will be installed nearby in the summer to complete the project. The joint venture between Talisman and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) is a central part of DOWNViND (Distant Offshore Wind Farms No Visual Impact iN Deepwater).

"We are making history with the first electricity being generated by this offshore deepwater turbine," said Dr. Jim Buckee, Talisman Energy Inc. president and CEO. "This achievement is a huge milestone in the DOWNViND project."

DOWNViND, which includes 18 organizations from six European countries, is one of the European Community's largest renewable energy research and development programs and is designed to ensure that Europe is well positioned to take a global lead in developing deepwater offshore wind farms.

Funding for the project was provided by a variety of organizations including the European Community (EUR 6 million), the Scottish Executive (Pounds Sterling 3 million) and UK Department for Trade and Industry (Pounds Sterling 3 million). The remainder of the funding came from Talisman and SSE, augmented by contributions in kind from many participants.

Note that this is just a technology demonstrator project. The installation was delayed by bad weather (not surprising, it's Scotland!). The turbines are 5MW devices supplied by RePower. Some more pics from last year's installation to give you a sense of scale (that is a helipad on the nacelle).

More info

The German RePower turbines have a power output of 5 Megawatts with a rotor blade diameter of 126 metres sweeping an area of over 12,000 square metres. Maximum power output is achieved at around 30 mph, but a couple of MW are generated even in a fresh breeze. Rotors start turning at around 7 mph, and are automatically braked at 70mph.

Power control is achieved by blade pitching - i.e. turning the rotor blades individually out of very strong wind to prevent the whole structure being damaged. Find out more about power control with our guide to wind turbine furling.

Each turbine weighs over 900 tonnes including the 120 metre tall tower which has to be anchored in the deep water. Each turbine blade is 61.5 metres long and weighs under 18 tonnes. LM Glasfiber, the turbine blade manufacturer, has made quite some achievement to keep the weight down so low thereby reducing the financial and environmental costs of building wind turbines

Such large wind turbine generators are ideally suited to the offshore environment thanks to high consistent wind speeds and minimal turbulence. According to historical measures of wind speeds at the Beatrice offshore location, it is expected that the turbines will run an impressive 96% of the time (8440 hours per year), and at 5MW full power 38% of the time (3300 hours per year).

Stat: with a blade length of 61.5 metres and a windspeed of 20mph you will get 127 metric tonnes of air moving through the swept area per second.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.